The best interior designers are, above all, keen observers. What they produce is as much the result of invention as it is long process of collecting and refining, until the influences that shaped a room become indistinguishable from the room itself.
Martin Waller, founder of Andrew Martin, has made travel the primary grammar of his work. The cultures he encounters on the road resurface (sometimes literally, sometimes at a remove) in wallpapers and furniture that carry a sense of elsewhere without tipping into pastiche. Dara Huang, of Design Haus Liberty, works from a different archive: Mid-century discipline and European contemporary movement, applied across luxury retail commissions and private residences.
Designer to celebrities such as Victoria Beckham (and a former Dragon’s Den investor) Kelly Hoppen tells Spear’s that her approach could best be described as instinctive, an understanding of space that precedes a brief and shapes how she responds to it. It’s not a quality that can be taught, and the designers who have it tend to be the ones whose rooms feel coherent rather than curated.
Craftsmanship has also moved to the centre of the conversation. Beata Heuman and Laura Hammett are among those who have developed their own furniture collections, a decision driven by diversification but largely by the difficulty of guaranteeing quality through external supply chains.
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The materials themselves tell a related story, according to the experts. The preference, across much of the field, is for things that age honestly rather than date badly: lime and mineral paints, carefully chosen antiques and finishes that outlast the trends that were fashionable when the room was made.
Economics have added a new dimension. Scarlett Hessian, who recently made headlines after designing Margot Robbie’s Los Angeles offices, notes that shifting tariffs have made importing significantly more expensive, redirecting commissions toward local craftsmen – a change that began as pragmatism but has, in many cases, produced more interesting results.
The brief, more broadly, has changed. Some designers described a shift towards creating emotive spaces with an emphasis on wellness. Hoppen has described her current focus as designing environments that are ‘better for the nervous system’. Others revealed that they have been asked to incorporate home cinemas, yoga spaces and gaming rooms – complete with at-home golfing and racing simulators – into their homes and holiday houses.
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None of this displaces the underlying discipline. Emma Sims-Hilditch, whose practice is rooted in country houses and historic buildings, approaches each project as an act of reconciliation, between what a house was built to be and what its occupants need it to become.
For those working with inherited properties, the question of timelessness takes on a particular weight. The aim is not preservation for its own sake but continuity, where interiors that carry the logic of what came before all while remaining genuinely habitable for whoever comes next.
Increasingly, that means working with entire families, treating the home as something to be handed on rather than finished.
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- Methodology
- The best interior designers: some names to know
- The best interior designers: the complete list
- Contact us
Methodology
Each year, the Spear’s Research Unit reassesses and refreshes its rankings of the leading providers in each sector by gathering data from and about the advisers and firms themselves, assessing submission forms, collating nominations, carrying out peer reviews, reviewing data from third-party sources, gathering references and recommendations, canvassing experts and conducting hundreds of interviews.
Advisers are evaluated using a proprietary scoring system that assigns different weightings to certain attributes. These scores feed directly into each new set of rankings in the Spear’s Indices. Each of these indices are published first online (according to the research calendar) and then in print. Print publication takes the form of the annual Spear’s 500 directory, which includes the top advisers in every index.
[See also: A guide to The Spear’s 500: Everything you need to know]
Each featured adviser is profiled on spears500.com. The site allows users to search the Spear’s database of more than 4,000 entities to find one (or more) to meet their specific requirements by filtering for specific attributes such as an adviser’s location, their specialist expertise and information about their client base.
The best interior designers: some names to know
Sharon Lillywhite
- Focus: Thoughtful luxury
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: Oliver Burns Studio
Sharon Lillywhite founded Oliver Burns Studio in 2004 and over the last two decades has become an esteemed interior designer to some of the world’s wealthiest families, luxury brands and property developers.
Lillywhite incorporates ‘thoughtful luxury’ into her designs through a focus on craftsmanship, artisanal sourcing and attention to detail. She tells Spear’s: ‘What brings [a design project] together is an absolute attention to detail and thought, and the narrative that goes into everything.’
Projects include Belgravia townhouses, a residence overlooking Buckingham Palace garden, Italian lakeside villas and country estates. ‘For us, it’s about quality, not quantity,’ Lillywhite says. The designer has also refurbished the luxury lounges at Heathrow’s VIP terminal, which are frequented by royalty, A-list celebrities and senior statespeople making their way through the airport.
Read Sharon Lillywhite’s full profile on Spears500.com
Charu Gandhi
- Focus: London and global residential
- Ranking: Top Flight
- Firm: Elicyon
A former member of the design team at Candy & Candy, Charu Gandhi established design studio Elicyon in 2014.
The trained architect tells Spear’s that she aims to ‘combine the rigours of my architectural practice with my creative flair’. Her design studio creates spaces that are ‘collected and centred on craft and longevity’, and Gandhi has a particular specialism in capturing the nuances of art, history and culture in her projects.
Gandhi has left her mark on many high-profile projects around the world. In London, the firm has completed a number of apartments in One Hyde Park, along with many other projects in Mayfair, Marylebone and Knightsbridge. International work includes apartments in One Palm Jumeirah and a 29,000sq ft penthouse in Dubai, a 40,000sq ft beach house in Kuwait, as well as major projects in Monaco, Singapore and the United States
Read Charu Gandhi’s full profile on Spears500.com
Laura Hammett
- Focus: Interior architecture and design
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: Laura Hammett
Laura Hammett founded her eponymous interior design firm in 2008 alongside her husband, Aaron.
The studio offers a comprehensive service that includes architectural and spatial planning, joinery, turnkey styling and lighting design. It does not have a specific in-house style, instead creating spaces that are ‘authentic, liveable and timeless’, and which follow the direction of clients.
‘We work on a very personal level,’ Hammett tells Spear’s. ‘Getting that personal relationship … and getting to know the client is where we’re very strong and what sets us apart from other studios.’
Read Laura Hammett’s full profile on Spears500.com
Martin Brudnizki
- Focus: Eclectic design
- Ranking: Top Flight
- Firm: Martin Brudnizki Design Studio
Founded in 2000, Martin Brudnizki’s eponymous interior design studio is known to create spaces that are bold, yet timelessly elegant.
Brudnizki has left his mark on some of the world’s most well-known spaces, including London private members’ club Annabel’s, Bacchanalia London, the Surrey and the Beekman hotels in New York City, and Harrods’ wine and spirits rooms in London, to name but a few. Brudnizki also takes on several residential projects per year, transforming the homes of the super-wealthy, heads of state and industry leaders.
The breadth and depth of Brudnizki’s portfolio is testament to his studio’s ability to expand and adapt to the project at hand. ‘It’s basically all about finding a story,’ Brudnizki tells Spear’s. ‘Even if it’s someone’s home, you want to find a story. And the story is there, depending on the building, the neighbourhood, the city … The client has a brand, and that is the story.’
Read Martin Brudnizki’s full profile on Spears500.com
Dara Huang
- Focus: High-end luury
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: Design Haus Liberty
Dara Huang founded her interior design studio Design Haus Liberty in 2013, and quickly went on to secure household names and top brands including the Four Seasons, Cartier and LVMH as clients.
Huang blends mid-century and contemporary European influences in her interiors, which have been showcased in residential and commercial projects across the world, from Miami beach houses and urban Hong Kong oases to stylish London apartments and Milanese residences.
Huang emphasises collaboration with her clients, saying that her role is to ‘interpret their vision’. She cites nature as a key inspiration for many of her designs: ‘Interiors and furniture can sometimes look over-processed, and you don’t really remember where they came from,’ she tells Spear’s.
Read Dara Huang’s full profile on Spears500.com
Scarlett Hessian
- Focus: Spatial storytelling
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: Studio Hessian
Scarlett Hessian gained widespread recognition in 2025 following the unveiling of the new Los Angeles-based offices of LuckyChap, the production company founded by Margot Robbie. ‘It was fun to bring my learning from residential [projects] back into commercial and create a very different environment for work,’ she tells Spear’s.
An architect by training, Hessian began her career collaborating with commercial clients before gently moving into the residential space.
The Studio Hessian footprint can be found across the world, with a particular nexus in the west coast of the US, London and Stockholm. Hessian still draws all of her concepts herself, and finds inspiration from time spent living in Denmark and working in Japan.
Read Scarlett Hessian’s full profile on Spears500.com
The best interior designers: the complete list
Click on the individual names to be directed to more detailed profiles on spears500.com. The table is ordered by ranking and then alphabetically.
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With additional reporting from Alice Coleman.
